Ohio State mumps outbreak rises to 28 cases

Tuesday

Mar 18, 2014 at 12:01 AMMar 19, 2014 at 11:38 AM

City health officials say the number of mumps cases associated with the outbreak among Ohio State University students has increased to 28. Of those, 23 are students, one is a staff member, one is related to an OSU student and three are outside the university but have strong ties to it. On Monday, the day classes resumed after spring break, the total was 23. Three people had been hospitalized for one day.

Mark Somerson, The Columbus Dispatch

City health officials say the number of mumps cases associated with the outbreak among Ohio State University students has increased to 28.

Of those, 23 are students, one is a staff member, one is related to an OSU student and three are outside the university but have strong ties to it. On Monday, the day classes resumed after spring break, the total was 23. Three people had been hospitalized for one day.

Students and faculty and staff members are receiving emails updating them on the outbreak and answering anticipated questions about mumps and how to contain it.

Messages through social media and posters on and off campus are encouraging practices to keep disease transmission down, including good hand hygiene and cough-and-sneeze etiquette.

For now, there’s no plan to offer booster vaccines at Ohio State. The tactic has rarely been employed in mumps outbreaks but showed some promise in a recent study in New York in a smaller, well-defined population.

Disease investigators with Columbus Public Health have been unable to connect the cases beyond the fact that most of the victims have been students at Ohio State or probably were sickened by exposure to students, Rodriguez said.